Jen's Writing Journey

Welcome to the new home of Jen's Writing Journey, the blog that chronicles Jennifer Roland's writing life and provides useful information for new and seasoned writers.

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[digg=http://digg.com/educational/How_Are_You_Furthering_Your_Writing_Career]Tiffany Colter, the Writing Career Coach, had a great post last week: Do You Own It? It offered a no-nonsense kick in the pants to all of us who play-act at being writers.

I have purchased her Writing Career Coach courses on Creating a Writer’s Life and Building a Platform, but I haven’t finished it. I own that. I want to finish it. The lessons are wonderful, and the feedback is valuable. I have put at least one idea from each lesson into practice, and it has helped me approach my career in a professional fashion.

I am thankful that her post came during a week when I had set goals for the month and had come to some decisions about how I would achieve them. It also came during a week when I had submitted four short stories for consideration to various print and online publications, including a stand-alone excerpt from my current WIP. I feel as if I have really worked my writing career over the past week.

To help me better focus my writing time, I have taken a pseudo-vacation from Pop Culture Curmudgeon. I know that by posting less frequently, I risk losing some readers. But I need to put my paying projects and potentially paying projects first. And I will keep posting during the coming month.

I will be maintaining my regular schedule here, with posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Wednesday, I will have a list of my indispensable tools. Friday, I will have the usual writing roundup.

What about you. What do you need to do to further your career? Do you need to set new goals? Create benchmarks? Find tools to help you better organize your time? Learn how to say no?

• Writing Roundup, October 23 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Before You Sign That Publishing Contract Diane Craver guests at Writers Weekly to remind us to take time to read our publisher contracts, assess the points, and decide whether the contract is really right before we sign.......
• Writing Roundup, January 29 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Top Authors Await Ebook Bonanza The Times looks at how many British authors are waiting to sell their backlists on the long-awaited Apple tablet. (On a related note, I can't imagine that the price tag of the......
• Guest Post by Christina Katz: Platform Resolutions for Writers Thanks to Christina Katz for sharing her platform-building wisdom. I hope you get some good action steps from this guest post. Platform Resolutions for Writers 2010 Before writers establish an author platform, they typically establish a writer platform. Over the past decade, thousands of writers have parlayed established influence into......
• Writing Roundup, May 29 Let's start by re-checking our goals for the month. Did you achieve them? If not, what can you do next month to reach your goals? Blogging How to Devalue Your Blog and Burn Yourself Out Men with Pens have done it again. This post about the need to find a......
• Writing Roundup, September 11 Here is a handy table of contents that will help you quickly reach the topic of your choice. Let me know if you like it this way. The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Freemium for Writers Is Two Debates Don Holloway provides interesting insight......

• The Gonzo Mama on How To Survive a Road Trip with Your Kids Welcome to our first guest post! My amazingly funny friend, Christina-Marie Wright, otherwise known as The Gonzo Mama, is the sanity-challenged mother of seven children....
• 6 Tricks to Finding the Right Spin In many cases, the most popular blogs got to their position by finding the right way to spin a topic. This technique can work for...
• Paying down the mortgage One of my goals is to pay off our mortgage by the year 2011, becoming COMPLETELY debt free. That means that to make my share...
• Polar F6 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch Full-feature sports watch displays your heart rate, exercise time, and average heart rateOwnCode transmitter eliminates interference from other heart rate monitorsPolar OwnZone helps determine an...
• Weight Loss Woes and Learnings My current weight loss so far has been 42 lbs. in a bit over three months. Is that good? No, it's not good enough. But...